The Walter and Inger Rice Center for Environmental Through Time: a Study in Environmental Change, Human Land Use and Its Effects Along the Lower James River
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Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2009 The Walter and Inger Rice Center for Environmental Through Time: A Study in Environmental Change, Human Land Use and its Effects along the Lower James River Chris Egghart Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the History Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/1795 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Walter and Inger Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences Through Time A Study in Environmental Change, Human Land Use and its Effects along the Lower James River Submitted to the Virginia Commonwealth University in partial fulfillment of requirements for a Master of Environmental Studies May 2009 Chris Egghart Foreword When this thesis project was first envisioned, its scope was limited to chronicling the effects of historic human land use along the Lower James River using the Virginia Commonwealth University Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences property as a case study. However, in conducting background research and compiling data for the undertaking, the author came to fully appreciate the extent to which natural occurring and culturally induced environmental change are interconnected. For this reason, the charting of the natural changes in the local environment should be considered not only as providing the textual framework for the study but also an integral component thereof. In this work, cartographic sources, historic accounts, and ethnographic and archaeological data help reconstruct past settlement patterns and land uses that together acted to shape the changing cultural landscape of the Lower James River. This cultural landscape represents the most obvious expression of human influence over the local environment. Other impacts are more subtle but environmentally significant nonetheless. In charting past impacts to the Lower James River environment, the study gives equal consideration to Native American and European land use practices. Native American environmental impacts, however, while not insubstantial at the time they were incurred, have generally not persisted. This is due not only to a lesser intensity of land use during prehistory and the time that has elapsed, but also to the fact that most impacts stemming from Native American activity were likely erased by the wholesale environmental degradation associated with initial European settlement. Research for this project yielded an unanticipated dividend in the form of detailed insight into the local cultural landscape of the Antebellum period. A Civil War era military map depicting the strategically critical Lower James River below Richmond provided a detailed view of mid-nineteenth century land use and settlement of the Rice Center and surrounding areas. In addition to showing individual structures including quarters associated with larger manors, the map also indicates the race of some of the dwellings’ inhabitants. With such level of detail, close examination of the map offers an unparalleled view of the local cultural geography during the mid-19th century. While fascinating in its own right, this cultural geography and the historical landscapes that are its expression, are key to understanding the whole of the human impacts to the local environment through much of the historic period. ii Table of Contents Section 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Section 2 Organization and Methods ...................................................................................... 2 Section 3 Location, Physiographic Setting, and Present Day Condition ............................. 9 Section 4 Geological, Climatalogical and Ecological Context............................................. 23 Geological History of the Lower James River.......................................................................... 23 Holocene Climate History of the Lower James River .............................................................. 25 Ecological History of the Lower James River .......................................................................... 28 Section 5 Cultural Context: Prehistory and History of the Lower James River ............. 31 Section 6 Settlement and Land Use of the Rice Center ....................................................... 48 Section 7 Environmental Impacts to the Study Area .......................................................... 87 Section 8 The Rice Center Through Time: An Interpretive Synthesis of the Natural Changes and Human Impacts along the Lower James River............................................... 104 Section 9 Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................... 114 Review of Human Land Use Impacts ..................................................................................... 114 The Contemporary Rice Center .............................................................................................. 117 Section 10 Epilogue................................................................................................................ 121 The Rice Center That Might Have Been................................................................................. 121 The Rice Center That Might Be.............................................................................................. 122 Final Thoughts ........................................................................................................................ 123 Section 11 Referenced Cited ............................................................................................... 126 iii List of Figures Figure 3-1 The Rice Center Location........................................10Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 3-2 2002 Aerial View of Rice Center………………………………………………….12 Figure 3-3 Soil Map of the Rice Center Area................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 6-1 Civil War Era View From Drury’s Bluff Downstream ....................................... 63 Figure 6-2 1863 Gilmer Confederate Engineering Bureau of Rice Center Area................. 65 Figure 6-3 1882 USCGS Survey Map of James River Sandy Point to City Point ................ 68 Figure 6-4 1907 Update USCGS Survey Map of James River.....Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 6-5 1937 Air Photo of the Rice Center ..............................Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 6-6 Enlargement of 1937 Air Photo..................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 6-7 1948 (1960 updated) USGS Quad Showing locations …………........................Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 6-8 1953 Air Photo of Rice Center……………………………………………………77 Figure 6-9 Location of Slave Quarters Location Near the Rice Center................................. 79 Figure 6-10 Enlargement of Slave Quarter Locations Near the Rice Center .................... ..80 Figure 6-11 Hierarchical Settlement Pattern in Relation to the James River...................... 82 Figure 6-12 Civil War Era and Contemporary Rice Center .......Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 7-1 Union Defenses at Bermuda Hundred.................................................................... 94 Figure 7-2 View of Union Supply Wharves at City Point ...........Error! Bookmark not defined. Figure 7-3 Civil War View of Kimages Creek…………………………………………….. 97 Figure 9-1 Contemporary Air Photo of Rice Center ....................Error! Bookmark not defined. iv v Section 1 The Rice Center Through Time Introduction Section 1 Introduction As the 21st century begins, mankind faces a daunting array of environmental challenges. Global industrialization, urbanization, and population growth have dramatically changed the face of the planet. Major environmental liabilities stemming from these processes include pollution, deforestation, desertification, the spread of non-native species, and plant and animal extinctions. The specter of man-caused or enhanced global climate change is also of significant concern. However, with the exception of problems specific to large scale industrial pollution, the environmental issues facing us today are manifestations of processes that have been ongoing for millennia. Humans have been modifying, altering, and otherwise influencing their environment for as long as the modern species has existed. As the primary avenue for the early English settlement of North America, much has been written on the history and archaeological record of the Lower James River. However, very little research pertaining to the cultural ecology of the area has been undertaken. Studies that have been performed typically focused on a particular time frame in the context of specific archaeological research issues. What is lacking is a synthetic view of the environmental changes that occurred during the ca. 11,500-year span of human occupation of the Lower James River, and the role that humans played in shaping those changes. This work seeks to provide such a view. The study focuses on the Virginia Commonwealth University Walter and Inger Rice for Environmental Studies (Rice Center), located in Charles City County along the north bank of the James River